Shorter efforts

Along with the Finnegan novels, and the brooding Sleep of Reason novel that lumbers about in my head, I continue to write and try to market a few short stories. Right now I have three short stories in circulation.

“Night train to Kisumu” – This is a not-very-hopeful story about unrest in Kenya. I wrote it a year ago after I had visited that beautiful country, but the current unrest there certainly shows my observations to have been on target. I have it submitted to two magazines, both of which state that they accept simultaneous submissions. Reported response time for each is way out there, so I’ll let those submissions settle to the back of my mind. I had already submitted this story to two other literary magazines, but it was not accepted at either.

“The Quincy Manuscript” – This is a murder confessional story. The story is framed by the discovery of the killer’s confession in the back of an old book, and I think the ending has a clever twist. I’m confident it will find a home in print. I was so confident about it, in fact, that I first sent it to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, which I realize was about as hopeless as a submission could be, but the magazine was courteous enough to decline it quickly so I could get it back in circulation.

“Diana and Acteon” – This is a retelling of the Greek Diana and Acteon myth. I’ve been tinkering with this one for years, and I found that I really couldn’t tinker with it any more, so I took that as a sign it was ready. I’ve tried submitting it here and there in the murky past, but I didn’t really keep any records (or I’m too lazy to dig them out), so I like to think that the story is now in its first submission to the unsuspecting world. It is an odd story that isn’t quite horror and isn’t quite humor. I hope it finds a home too.

My “imagining” of Finnegans Afoot has been surging lately, and I find that I must go back and rewrite earlier chapters to foreshadow certain events later in the story. This is good since it means the story is finally maturing in my head. So I keep at it. How about you?